The Builders: How Beavers Mend Our Planet

Few mammals have a bigger positive impact on the planet than the beaver. With its bright orange buck teeth, the creature is an expert engineer that brings life wherever it waddles and even fights fires. Our story begins in the Bronx river, once known as the “open sewer” of New York City. After some humans decide to clean it up, we meet one of the river’s residents - José the beaver. We learn about the US government parachuting beavers out of planes into the mountains. And finally head to California where we discover how one beaver family saved acres of land from burning. Special thanks to author Ben Goldfarb , Christian Murphy from the Bronx River Alliance and Dr. Emily Fairfax .

You can listen to The Builders: How Beavers Mend Our Planet online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Builders: How Beavers Mend Our Planet is an episode from Radiolab for Kids by WNYC.

This episode is 00:29:11 long.

This episode was published on Sep 18, 2025.

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